


Sacrificial Vengeance

by RuGrimm



Category: Wizard101
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned, Murder, Psychological Torture, Revenge, Sacrifice, Suicide, Torture, vengeance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 22:53:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15982217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuGrimm/pseuds/RuGrimm
Summary: **Written for a contest where the implications of spells in Wizard101 are greater than you'd expect.Mari and William are sent in by Merle Ambrose to kill a rogue wizard that's been causing trouble. However, things backfire when they discover that their target is stronger than any other they've encountered, and the night is overtaken with fire and blood.





	Sacrificial Vengeance

  _It was supposed to be routine…_

“Hekkuhaundo!”

_They’d done this a thousand times…_

“Reisu!”

_He wasn’t supposed to be this strong…_

“Tempest.”

A raging roar of thunder rocks the temple’s foundations, and fragments of the ceiling tumble toward the earth as the dilapidated structure is rocked to its very core from the intensity of it all. Above, the sky flashes in the darkness, and clouds swirl above as rain pours through the holes and cracks above.

Water forms around the feet of a blonde wizard, his hair combed to one side and the other side braided in cornrows. A scruffy goatee stands out on his chin, and water droplets gather on his pale face and the carnival-themed coat he’s wearing. His lips are curved in a sadistic grin, and as the wave behind him grows, he points his long cane toward the two young students across the room.

With a crackle of lightning, the wind picks up into a ear-piercing whistle, and as the cane focuses on the two, the wave behind him parts and rolls toward them with an unrelenting and quickening pace. It destroys the black, hooded figure and large, red hound standing in front of them, destroying their images and powering forward.

“Shirudo!” they cry in unison, and small, purple shields manifest in front of them.

The wave crashes into them with the full force of the tempest, and as the water hits the shields, purple domes encase them in a half-circle in an attempt to block out the rushing torrent. Cracks form in the translucent barrier, but it holds as the last of the spell fades into droplets behind them.

The student on the left, quite obviously a Death wizard, hisses as his shields fades like his companion’s. Residual water trickles on his head from what was left on the dome, and his spiky, black hair stands in protest. Beneath the mess of his ebony locks, a long braid peeks out and runs past his shoulders and halfway down his back, and it sways as he redraws a rough, rushed Death symbol in the air with his katana.

“Sukeruton…” he breathes, allowing the symbol to flash before fading.

In front of him, the stoned floor parts to allow a bony hand to breach from the earth and claw at the rugged ground. As its deformed head peers over the edge of the crevice, the skeletal pirate stares with one dead eye at the unimpressed Storm wizard gathering pips.

“It’s now or never, Mari!” William, the Death wizard, glances over his shoulder at his red haired companion.

Her crimson eyes flash with understanding as she nods and draws her kodachi. Without another second lost, she rushes past the rising skeleton and toward the smirking carnival-clad opponent. Mari raises her kodachi, slicing a Fire symbol into the air as her eyes flash a brighter shade of ruby when the symbol bursts into embers at her utterance.

_"Immolate!”_

Fire engulfs the skeleton behind her, and an otherworldly shriek resounds through the spacious hall. Any other person would have shuddered at such a haunting din or even at the site of a once human body rising from the earth as an undead torch. However, the students’ target remains unphased, and he only watches as the defiant redhead races recklessly toward him with the burning skeleton not far behind.

The skeleton continues to shriek as it begins to throw its body forward, wildly swinging its arms as it screams in phantom pain. Its single eye falls onto the ground in ashes, but it holds onto its sword even as its body falls to pieces.

Mari narrows her eyes as she closes in on the blonde, noting that he isn’t moving...or making any effort to counteract her advancements. Behind her, she’s sure that the immolated skeleton isn’t far, and William is likely preparing to back her up in case things go wrong. Instinct tells her that there’s something wrong here, but she can’t back off now. She just has to do things like they always do…

Gathering the last of her pips around her, she throws her arm forward and flicks another hurried symbol in the air with a screech of her native tongue. “Enmaku!”

Before she reaches her target, a blast of black smoke engulfs the area around her, obscuring the visions of both her and screaming skeleton. To anyone other than a fire wizard, the smoke would be suffocating, and she counts on that as she races blindly to where she last remembers he was. She turns slightly to the right, hoping to avoid him and turn around to attack from behind.

With a smirk, the Fire witch breaks from the cloud and slides out with her fingertips touching the ground to slow her movement. Digging her heels in, she turns with her kodachi ready to strike when she hears William’s screech.

_"MARI! ABOVE YOU!”_

Her eyes widen, and she glances upward...too late.

“Insane Bolt.”

She only manages to catch a glimpse of the Storm wizard that had jumped above the smoke cloud and the lightning that had gathered at his fingertips before her vision went white and her ears began to ring

William watches as the lightning strikes in front of her, and her body is thrown helplessly through the air only to crumble in a bloody mass on the stone floor. He’s not sure if its her hair or blood, but all he can see is the amount of red around her head…

She is limp...unmoving, and it frankly makes him sick to his stomach.

The explosion that shakes the dilapidated remains of the temple is enough to make his newly crafted shield shatter into millions of fragmented shards that fade as they near his feet. His black hair is blown askew, and he grits his teeth as he turns his focus back on the Diviner laughing uncontrollably across the room.

“Is that all?! Is that the best Ravenwood can send me?!” The Storm wizard doubles over clutches at the midsection of his carnival-inspired cloak to pull and hold on to the fabric in his manic fit. “Hahahahahaha-hehehehehehahaha!!! FOOLS! YOU NEVER STOOD A CHANCE!”

Renowned rouge Diviner, Eric Thunderblade--he’d been the target Ambrose had sent them to take care of. Any wizard that ran from Ravenwood was a threat, and so, Mari and William had been dispatched to either take him back or silence him for good. That was their task...no questions asked.

“Tssk.” Through his teeth, William sucks in a breath as he glances between Eric and Mari. She’s too far to get to. If he started running now, he wouldn’t make it in time to reach her before he could cast another spell.

Scenarios play in his head rapidly like a still-motion film, and no matter what he imagines, nothing ends with either of them leaving here alive.

“The two Wizard assassins from Mooshu: I’d hoped you’d put up a better fight than that, but I guess anyone stupid enough to work for that old geezer Ambro’ wouldn’t,” Eric taunts as he wipes mirthful drool from his lips. Behind him, the smoke begins to clear, and whatever happened to the immolated skeleton is the furthest thing from William’s mind at the moment.

“Soo desu ne?” grunts the assassin, his thin gaze narrowing further as he starts to circle Eric in an attempt to get closer to Mari. If he could keep the other talking, then maybe he could stall long enough to get within reach of her...She just needed to hold on a few more minutes…

Rolling his eyes, the blonde runs his fingers across his cornrows and frowns. “I don’t speak cow. Guess it doesn't matter tho. You won’t be no talking anymore when I’m through with ya.”

“We’ll see…”

“Oh, so you _do_  speak Common. That’s fantastic!” chirps the other, his face darkening with sadistic thoughts. “Then maybe you will understand me a bit better when I tell you what I’m gonna do with your girlfriend.”

William doesn’t comment on this, continuing to slink toward Mari’s still form. She’s within ten feet now, and he does his best to hide his feelings despite the nervous hammering in his chest.

“Ya don’t mind if I have my way a bit with her when I kill ya, do ya? I bet she’s real good...real nice and tight,” he purrs, his grin growing as he plays with his cane and slings it over his right shoulder. His hips make a lewd thrust as he finishes his sentence, and he laughs at the menacing glare he receives from the Death wizard. “Heh, so ya _have_  tapped that. Tell me, does she scream when she comes, or is she one of those silent types? Either way, I’m sure I’ll have fun.”

“You’re not going to touch her, sukebe,” he hisses, tilting his nose downward to glare upward at the disgusting man in front of him. Although his blood is boiling, he tries to remind himself what’s at stake. Mari is only within five feet now.

“Don’t worry. Ya won’t be alive to see it,” chuckles the blonde, and without any warning, he snaps.

The building begins to shake again, and lightning stretches toward the earth again to strike the ground behind Eric. A deafening wall of wind radiates from the epicenter, and William has to dig his heels in to keep from being blown away from the sheer force. His arm raises to shield his eyes from the flying debris, and as he squints over it, he can make out the hideous creature now standing above them.

Large, white fangs drool as the purple, bipedal dragon looms over the three wizards in the temple. Its golden eyes look at William in interest, and the Death wizard grits his teeth in frustration as he glances from the Stormzilla to Eric and then to Mari.

Eric laughs as he raises his cane and points to William. “It was a nice spar. I’ll make sure to give your babe your regards.”

Roaring, the Stormzilla takes a step forward, the stone beneath it giving way and cracking under its weight. Above the creature’s head, the ceiling still shakes and falls in chunks. Nevertheless, the monster lends no care to the failing structure, and it pushes onward with its gaze fixed solely on the Death wizard that sneers at it.

Malice drips from William’s expression, and as the pips around him glow a vibrant gold, he grasps his katana firmly. When he raises it to write the Death symbol, he hesitates…

“Will…” Mari moans, her vision fuzzy and head swimming. She’s not sure where she is...or how she got there. All she really understands is pain...and that it’s cold… Everything is...so cold.

Grimacing, William closes his eyes as the gargantuan beast opens its jaws to and lunges forward. Even from where he stands, he can smell the pungent fish smell of its breath, and he doesn’t even flinch as the teeth glint from the flashes of lightning above. Without further hesitation, his wrist flicks a symbol in the air, and he meets the Stormzilla’s tiny gaze with one of defiance.

“Yosai.”

A powerful Fortify spell forms in a large dome to encompass both himself and Mari, and the teeth of the powerful Storm creature land harmlessly on the astral surface. It growls in an untamed anger, bashing its head against the spell, but it doesn’t budge.

There isn’t a second left to lose, and sheathing his katana, William turns tail and races to Mari’s side. His knees cause the blood beneath her to splatter, and it’s still warm, staining the fabric of his black pants. Pulling her into his arms, his free hand cups the side of the Fire witch’s face as his eyes waver with now unhidden concern.

“Mari? Mari! Mari, daijobudesuka?! Mari! Mari!” He lightly slaps her cheek, trying to get her to open her eyes again, and the longer it takes her to respond, the faster his chest begins to heave. “Mari! Mari! Okiro!”

“...Nn...Will…” she murmurs, and her lashes flutter as the world starts to come into view. Although she can imagine his worried, tanned face--braid hanging over his shoulder--she can’t see anything... She feels as if he should be saying something...but she can’t hear anything...There’s only this rumbling sensation beneath her as if the ground is shaking...and she’s vaguely aware that she is most definitely: “Cold...So cold…”

“Mari, anata wa-...you’re going to be...okay…” he manages, nodding as if he were trying to reassure her, but the only one he was truly trying to convince was himself. Her clothes were mostly tattered, and every inch of exposed skin was bleeding, raw, and burnt. It was as if the lightning strike had burnt her body, and the force of her impact was enough to make the already cauterized wounds reopen.

Nevertheless, it isn’t until he looks down toward her middle that his stomach swims with nausea. Her entire left side is exposed as if it had been blown open by the force of the impact, the blood languidly gushing from the open wound, and he swears that he can see her intestines hanging out to lay upon the ground. The more her heaving chest struggles for breath, the more blood she loses.

Crimson pours from the corners of her eyes, and she can’t seem to keep them open for more than a second no matter how hard she tries. When he looks closer, he can see the same dried blood and burnt damage on her ears and almost the same on most of her body.

“Mari...Mari, can you hear me? Mari?”

The Stormzilla roars again as it tries to bite through the dome again, and the Fortify spell begins to crack as time runs out.

“Will...he..lp…” she whispers, and as tears begin to fall down her temples, they gather blood and leave clear trails down her disfigured face.

Tears also assail the male assassin, his grip unconsciously tightening on his lover as his brain begins to hurt from all the thoughts crossing his mind. He wants to help her. He needs to do something! But what? What could he possibly do to fix this? As he glances at her kodachi on the ground beside her, his eyes widen with a thought he knew she wouldn’t approve of.

Grabbing her kodachi, he positions her head to rest on his propped up leg and slits his right arm from the crook to his wrist. The thin line wells with scarlet, and he chants something in his Mooshu dialect…

“Will...co…” Her voice cuts out, head falling limply to its side and heaving chest stilling. Her hair falls around her burnt countenance, kindly shielding her lover from the glazed stare of her lifeless eyes.

“MARI! MARI! No! NO! Oite ikanaide kudasai!!! Kudasai!!! MARI!” he cries, pleading with her to stay with him even as the Fortify around him begins to fail. Chunks of the astral projection begin to fall around him and dissipate into the air. Relentlessly, the Stormzilla attacks it with its powerful jaws, and time is running out.

He presses his bleeding arm to her lips, trying to get her to swallow, but he knows that the spell isn’t powerful enough to undo the damage. Instead, the blood only smears on her face, and as he turns her head to try and press harder against her face in his frantic grief (as if it would do any good), his stomach turns at the vacant expression he’s met with.

“No...No...Mari...kudasai…” His lips begin to tremble, and tears streak down his face in a cascade stronger than the tempest they had faced earlier. Body convulsing with sobs, he drops the kodachi and cradles his beloved’s corpse in his arms. When he presses his face to her hair, all he can smell is that of burnt flesh, and he has to fight the urge to throw up.

The ground beneath him trembles beneath the raging Stormzilla outside the failing Fortify spell, and William contemplates simply allowing the spell to fade away...and let the spell reunite him with his redheaded love. Looking up to the cracked ceiling of his temporary prison, he blinks away tears and closes his eyes. If this is to be their end, so be it.

…

A glint of the kodachi catches his eye again.

…

What if he were to cast a stronger spell?

…

What if, he gave up something more than just his blood?

…

Laying Mari out on the ground in front of him, he grabs the small blade and glances one more time at the love of his life. If this failed, they’d be together in the end. If it succeeded, Mari would go on living for the both of them. Either way, it would be worth the effort.

With a deep breath, he grabs the hilt with both hands and points the blade to his abdomen before glancing over at the red visage beside him. There was no other way…

In a flash of two golden wisps, William closes his eyes, tilts his head forward, and mutters under his breath, “ _Gisei._ ”

He takes a deep breath...and then plunges the sword into himself. His eyes open wide, chest seizing from the shock, and he finds that he can’t breath. Tears return to his eyes, but he refuses to cry anymore as he forces himself to force the blade to cut to the right, splitting his midsection wide open.

From the other side, the tip of the blade points outward from his body, and blood covers his hand in a waterfall to join the puddle beneath Mari. Darkness already teases at the corners of his vision, but he doesn’t let it deter him. Defiantly, he watches Mari...witnessing in disbelief as a subtle, white glow begins to emanate from his wound and from that of his lover’s.

The more he bleeds, the more her wounds begin to mend themselves, and he watches with a pained smile as her eyes regain their light once again. It’s a bittersweet moment.

“W..ill?” With a gasp of breath, Mari blinks away the crusty, dried blood at the corners of her eyes and turns her head to look toward the form of her lover. It takes her a moment to make sense of the world around her, but when she does, she can see him beside her...almost bent over her legs. His braid is hanging loosely over his shoulder, eyes obscured by the messy bangs hanging over his eyes.

Slowly sitting up, she glances over to the Stormzilla almost through the Fortify spell, and then back to Will who is slightly turned away from her...unmoving. She’s sore, and her brows knit together when she see the light coming from her wounds as they close together.

“Will? What’s...going on? Hey...Will?” she asks, growing concerned when he doesn’t answer her. Wincing, she moves onto her knees and reaches for his shoulder, but when she turns him to look at her, her blood runs cold. “Oh my...what...WILL! What have you done?!”

“Mari...I had to…” he breathes, swallowing hard as he looks from the gaping wound in his stomach and to the watering eyes of the redhead. Her hair is knotted, caught in clumps of blood and debris, and despite the blood and tattered clothing, she is still beautiful to him.

“No...No! You can’t do this! Please, Will! Stop it! Stop it right now!” she screams, ripping the blade from his stomach and throwing it aside carelessly. Her hands grip at his shoulders and at his face, smearing blood over the unflawed, tan skin. “You can’t leave me here alone!”

William reaches out to cup the side of her face and opens his mouth like he’s about to say something, but his strength gives out. No warning, he slumps forward into her embrace.

“WILLIAM!” She presses his shoulder to roll him onto his back, and then she crawls over top of him, trying to pull him upward in order to sit up. However, he only falls back down again with a pain gasp. Panicked, her hands hover over him trembling, and she’s at a completely loss as to what to do. “Don’t close your eyes! I can fix this! I can! I just…”

Not thinking straight, Mari presses her hands to his middle, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. She could...she could cauterize it...but it’s already been too much...Oh God...there’s so much blood.

“Ma...ri...Tei...shi...shite kudasai…” he manages, shaking his head as a hand gently rests over top of hers.

“No...No, I won’t stop...There’s got to be something!” begs the redhead, absolutely hysterical now as her voice raises an octave and the tears won’t stop coming. Her face is as red as her hair, and it’s almost as if she can’t breathe because she won’t stop gasping for breath in between her desperate sobs.

“No...It’s...okay…” William forces a pained smile, and he suddenly understands why Mari had said it was so cold. It feels almost like he’s back on their mission in Polaris...when they first spent a night together in the local hotel. As his vision begins to fade, he remembers everything…

He remembers when he’d first met her.

He remembers her tears, her smiles, her graces, her clumsiness.

He remembers the adventures they’d go on, the missions he dreaded, and all the foes that had ever caused them trouble.

Every time...every moment...every episode of his life always came round to the same pair of vibrant, vermillion eyes, and he knew...that it would be a long time before he ever saw them again.

“Will...Will?” Mari’s lip trembles, fingers hovering over his cheek as his eyes began to flutter and his breathing faltered. “Don’t leave me…”

“Mari…” He shakes his head, taking her shaking hand in his own and pressing his face into her palm.

“I love, William...I love you…”

Nodding, he manages a small smile, unable to form words as his world begins to spin and things around him sound distant.

Sniffling, the redhead leans down and presses her lips against him, trying to ignore the coppery taste of blood and the unnatural chill. Closing her eyes, she tries to commit his kiss to memory...to keep this moment sacred despite the awful reality of it all.

But it’s short lived.

As she pulls away to say something again, his eyes are closed...mouth slack and body limp. Simultaneously, his spell breaks with a sound akin to glass breaking, and the shards of the spell fly in every direction until they too fade into oblivion.

Triumphantly, the Stormzilla roars, rearing back its head and tiny arms flailing in its childish delight. When it finishes, it prepares to lunge forward again, but Eric Thunderblade holds up his cane to halt the powerful spell.

“Well, isn’t that interestin’?” he muses, glancing between William’s dead body and Mari’s ragged form. “They always said Death kids were the emotional ones. I thought it was the Fire ones, but I can’t argue with what I just seen.”

Mari turns her head away from him, unable to process anything at the moment. Even grief seems like a distal concept.

“Well, now that he’s out of the picture…” The blonde raises his hand to stroke his goatee in thought, and the Stormzilla in front of him growls as it stares at its potential target. “We could have a little bit more fun. Wanna do this the easy way or the fun way, babe?”

“This…” she whispers, her eyes wide and burning for they have more no tears to cry. “This is your fault.”

“It’s not my fault your boyfriend offed himself,” laughs the Storm wizard, his glee echoing off the walls of the wide hall.

“He’s dead...because of you…” Her face is now void of emotion, almost as if fixed in a trance.

“Huh?”

Standing from William’s body, she turns to face Eric and lets out a long, low breath. Her body is relaxed, completely comfortable, and she almost sways where she stands. Blood is splattered on her body and face like scattered rose petals, complementing the vivid shade of crimson in both her eyes and wild tresses. Clothing hangs from her in coiled strips, leaving wide, open patches of bare skin for the world to see, but she cares nothing for modesty now.

Slowly, she glances from the floor and follows a trail of debris to the booted feet of her lover’s killer. Trailing up the colorful, indigo garments of the wizard, she meets his gaze with a look of nigh contentment. In fact, one could say that she had the face of a bored school boy or that of a lazy hound on a summer day.

Her eyes travel over her opponent like one would size up a school-yard bully. Leisurely, like a child observing a new playmate, she tilts her head to the side...and then to the other side, taking in everything that is Eric Thunderblade.

With a scoff, Eric rolls his eyes and thinks nothing of it. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that he seemed to grow bored with the whole display. “Is that supposed to intimidate me?”

“Shi-ne…” she murmurs, her voice barely above a whisper. She takes a small, almost non-existent step forward with her lover’s katana held limply at her side.

Ignorant of her language, Eric brushes it off as nothing more than the crazy talk of a grieving woman. Arrogantly, the blonde taps the edge of his cane against his cheek, pondering how he would take her. It wouldn’t be too difficult to restrain her with a water elemental and have his way with her on the temple floor. Better yet, he could pacify her for now and take her back to his place as his personal toy for the foreseeable future (until he broke her).

“Shi-ne…” The words fall from her lips again, and this time they’re louder...stronger...and growing in confidence like her steps. Her pace begins to increase, and Eric only stood his ground.

He wasn’t going to be intimidated by this redheaded bitch.

“Shi-ne.” Mari began to walk briskly now, quickly closing the distance between them and ignoring the towering Stormzilla above.

Eric’s smile fell, and his brows knitted as he began to reevaluate the situation. He took a small step back, second thoughts hedging his conscious. There is something about the way she is holding herself...the way she stalks forward...how her bangs obscure her eyes, and how her steps seem to be perfectly timed. It disturbs him--greatly.  

“Don’t come any closer,” he warns, grip tightening on his cane as Mari continues to stalk forward, getting faster and fiercer with every step. He notices with growing alarm that there’s something about her aura now that troubles him...unsettles him to his very core.

And that’s when he sees It: the dark, black wisp circling around her feet with the gold.

“Shi-ne.” She’s nearly jogging now, and when she looks up at him, his blood turns cold.

Her eyes are a vibrant red, almost glowing with a phantasmal quality, and plastered to her face is a manic grin that sends a chill to his very core.

Raising her katana with a crazed giggle, she swipes a star into the air, and a scarlet aura surrounds her as she continues to close the distance.

“STAY BACK!” he commands, eyes wide as he takes several step backs and points his cane toward the advancing witch.

The Stormzilla screeches as it turns toward Mari and opens its massive jaws. However, she only turns toward it with that grin as she raises the katana again and slashes through the air diagonally in front of her.

“SHI-NE!!!”

The golden wisps and black orb shine brightly as fire erupts from her blade and creates a ring of fire around them. Banners left on the walls ignite, falling into the flames and adding to the heat, and in surrounded by such fire and that aura, red enveloped Eric’s vision from afar. A cry of anger exploded through Mari’s scream, and from the fire erupted a beast of which Eric had only seen in spell books:

A bull made entirely of passionate, red flame.

It shook its head wildly, drawing the attention of the towering dragon. The purple beast lowers its head with a snarl before bellowing out a challenging cry. Throwing itself forward, the Stormzilla races toward the new contender with its massive tail sweeping side to side, destroying the few remaining pillars in the center of the room. Whole sections of the ceiling collapse, and Mari only steps back once to avoid a chunk of the falling stone.

Crying out, the bull charges toward the Stormzilla, lowering its horns toward the beast much larger than itself. With a powerful blast of fire magic, the bull rips through the Storm spell, the dragon fading into thin air, but the bull doesn’t stop. Instead, it continues to race forward and toward Eric who stands in utter surprise.

Upon realizing the bull’s intentions, he lets out an unmanly sound, and before he can raise his cane to cast another spell, the horns of the bull imbed themselves into his shoulders. Held up on the horns of the great beast, he’s pushed toward the wall which the bull impales and holds him against.

Blood splatters on the wall behind him, and Eric lets out a pained yelp as his vision whites out from the trauma. As he looks past the maddened bull and through the ring of fire, he watches as the wall of flickering heat parts for Mari to pass through. It’s something out of a nightmare.

It wasn’t natural.

She shouldn’t even be able to use Shadow magic...what...was going on? Why didn’t the bull fade when it attacked him?!

Wiggling with a grimace, he presses his hands against one horn in an attempt to free his shoulder, but the more he squirms, the wider his wound gets. Blood trickles down the curved bone, dripping onto the stone and beginning a pool. Eric grits his teeth, feeling blood gathering in his mouth, and as he watches Mari, he becomes aware of the way she’s now smiling. Her pace is quick and deliberate, katana firmly in one hand and the other running down the burning form of her loyal spell.

It was wrong...in so many ways… And frankly, it was _terrifying_.

“STOP IT! YOU GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” His knuckles are ghost white, eyes widening as she stood before him with a Cheshire grin, he let out a scream in honest, unbridled terror.

“SHI-NE!” Swinging blade toward him, she laughs as he raises his hands despite the overwhelming pain it causes him.

Eric watches as his fingers are literally ripped away in a spray of blood and screams. He pales and trembles--literally trembles--as Mari lets out the craziest, most insane laugh he has ever heard, and it almost seems to harmonize with his scream of terror and pain: a scream that begged for mercy without saying a single, coherent word.

Oh, but Mari was just getting started.

Her head twitches suddenly to the side, and with the motion of her head, the bull back up and flings Eric from its horns. He skids across the ground like a pebble on water, ending in a mass of limbs near a pile of fallen rubble. With a huff of smoke from its flaring nostrils, the proud beast fades from existence, but the fire it leaves behind remains with a raging heat.

The Storm wizard groans, his shoulders burning and bleeding, and every muscle in his body feels worn and heavy. As he reaches to push himself up, he’s reminded in horror that his fingers are gone, and when he presses his remaining palms to the ground, blood gushes onto the already stained earth. Body trembling, he groans, the coppery substance in his mouth bubbling with every labored breath.

“Shi-ne~” giggles the red witch, a skip in her step as she approaches him again. Her katana drags against the ground, scraping against stone like claws on glass. Hair swaying back and forth, strands cast a gloomy shadow over her glee-contorted countenance. “Shi-ne~”

She looked truly and utterly insane, and from her lips tumbles a manic, high-pitched giggle as the crazed redhead’s mind flicks through the options of what to do next. When she glances over her victim’s injuries again, her eyes widen with delighted fascination and her mouth curves into a petrifying Cheshire grin the warps her blood-splattered face.

At this, the rouge wizard trembles and releases a low wail of terror. He tries to get up, but his body won’t obey, submitting to the redhead in instinctual fright. Her shadow looms over his body now, and he can’t help that stinging sensation in his wavering sight.

“Please...please!” begs the blonde, his cornrows falling out of place as he tries to use his legs to push himself away from her.  "I beg of you, have mercy... I'll stop; I'll be your slave. For eternity! I, I...!"

“Shiiiii~ neeeee~” croons the redhead, giggling again as she raises the katana to point at him with with the speed of a sloth on a tropical, sunny day. Her head tilts to the side again, hair falling over one eye and the other wide in her mirth. "But not just yet. Oh no, I'm not done with you. You'll bleed much more before you die. You'll scream too. Oh, you'll _SCREAM_........"

Lazily, she draws a symbol in the air, a flash of orange brighter than the flames around them blinding both wizards momentarily. At first, nothing happens, and Mari only stands over Eric’s cowering form, grinning at him expectedly.

It’s when he starts that awful screech that she knows it’s begun, and her laughs creates a cacophony with his agonized wails.

His body flails on the ground, his body twisting and contorting like that of a snake in its death throes. Eyes rolling into the back of his head, blood bubbles out of the corners of his mouth. The storm wizard could have sworn that his own blood was boiling from the inside, his world filled with this awful sweltering sensation. Body breaking into a massive sweat, the perspiration almost immediately evaporates from his body with the heat, his skin turning to raw pink.

Steam rises from his wounds, mouth, and ears, and the more his figure tries to fight the heat, the intenser it grows. He shrieks, head spinning when he repeatedly bashes into into the ground during his spasms, and when it finally tapers, he realizes that he can no longer see.

Eyes dried out from the heat, a thin, wispy trail of either smoke or steam wafts from their completely white surfaces. Dried blood is caked in his mouth, and his brain is throbbing. He seems fatter, his skin bulging out in random spots and wounds squeamishly oozing both blood and another mystery liquid no one cared to identify. All-in-all, he’s deformed and ugly, and he can’t seem to get any of his body to cooperate with what he wants.

Chest heaving in uneven spurts, he can’t seem to remember how it is that he’s supposed to breathe anymore.

“Oooh~ Are you dead already?” pouts the witch, her bottom lip curling in disappointment. The vengant aura still surrounds her, and time is running out. “You can’t die yet...No...I want you to beg for death.”

“Pwe...ple…” he chokes, brain too muddled to concoct any sort of coherent sentence.

“What was that?” she giggles, raising one foot and pressing her shoe down on the blonde’s face. Her heel digs between his split, dried lips, silencing him save for a few sobs and muffled screams. “You want me to stop?”

Eric only stares up up at her blankly, knowing that no matter what he did now, he was in deep shit. He knew he was going to die.

Mari’s lips curl back in disdain, and she digs her heel in deeper, smirking coldly when she feels some of his teeth cracking and ripping away under the pressure. Eric chokes and gags, nearly retching, and then he screams again--a process that doesn’t take much brain power. Instinctually, he tries to turn his head away and escape the pain, but no matter what he tries, Mari’s heel holds him in place and roots him to the spot. He’s forced to to stay there, choking and gagging on both the heel and the sickeningly metallic taste of his own blood so malformed that there’s dried chunks mixed in with the viscous liquid which pools in his mouth from the annihilated teeth that still grate within.

“What was that? Did you just shake your head? So, you don’t want me to stop? Why, you sick little masochist~” she croons playfully, tapping his cheek with the flat edge of the katana and pulling her heel from his bloodied mouth. Her smile then falls, contorting in disgust as she pulls her foot back and slams it back into his face. “You make me sick.”

Eric gags as new crimson pours down his face from his ravaged mouth and newly-broken nose, neck recoiling from the force of the blow. He gurgles as he tries to speak, his speech inhibited by lack of teeth and the brutal injuries to his mouth and jaw. Breathing is difficult, and every time he tries to breathe through his mouth, he swallows more blood.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Mari teases, her eyes narrowing before she smirks and starts to circle him like a predator stalks prey. Eric can only make babbling sounds now, and when speaks, bloods flecks on the ground beneath him and his lips revealed the mess of bloodied gums and broken teeth. “I thought you’d last longer than this.”

The world around Eric flashes between the firey red of the flames spreading like wildfire in the temple and the darkness of the unknown. Everything in his body is beginning to fail him, and he can’t seem to care anymore. Pips that had gathered around him vanish, no longer drawn to his half-dead form. His cane-wand is far from his reach, and he couldn’t grasp it if he wanted to. To let go and allow for this nightmare to end would be a blessing.

That blessing isn’t one Mari would allow.

He vaguely notices her shadow loom over top of him with feet planted on either side of his bloated physique. Glinting in the firelight, the katana is held high above her head, pointed downward and toward his middle.

“Shi-ne…” mutters the witch before the katana is enveloped in flames and the red aura of vengeance. It plunges into the abdomen below, the flesh parting way easily and organs shifting to accommodate the wide, foreign object--some tearing and beginning to bleed out fatally. The tip exits out of his back, severing nerves like strings and breaking his spine like a twig.

Eric let out a breathless wail as his lower body was stolen by numbness that was somehow even worse and more terrifying than the agonizing pain he had known. Mari’s grimace fell upon him in utter hatred, and she ripped the blade out slowly, painfully out of his body and twists it on the way.

“Who did you just try to kill?” she growls, her own skin starting to burn as some of Eric’s body healed--forming a link in order to heal the Storm wizard and keep him alive until she was done with what she had planned. Sudden tears of fury gather in her eyes, and she shakes in her anger. “Who did you just take away from me?”

Despite now regaining some of his cognition from the spell, the ability to speak, and the sensation of his legs, he didn’t dare say a word. Either way, he knew it was over for him.

Snarling now, Mari takes the bloodied blade and drives it into his left leg. She smiled wickedly at him as he screamed again, having missed the utter terror in his voice. When he didn’t answer her, she withdrew and repeated the process on the other, taking her time and reveling in the pure, white-hot agony shown so blatantly on his reddened face.

The heat of the inferno around them was now unbearable to Eric, wind whipping from the flames and throwing the mess of the fire witch’s hair in every which direction. In some areas, the stone was beginning to melt, the temple continuing to fall inward around them.

As the redhead repeats the procedure over and over again on his helpless form, her victim yells louder and louder with stab, until his voice peaks beyond its limit, cracks, and becomes a meaningless, hoarse series of sobs that gurgle with blood and tears alike.

“WHO DID YOU TAKE FROM ME?! SAY IT!”

“Da-da Death wizard! W-WILLIAM!” he screams, back arching as she slits his manly sac and delights in his primal howl.

“THE ONE I LOVED!” she shrieks, pulling out the katana and grabbing him by the collar to haul him upward and bring him face-to-face with her. His head is tilted back, too weak to even lift it and try to make out her twisted face.

With a grunt of exertion, the aura around her glows, and she summons the strength to throw the limp body toward the blaze. He cries out as he lands in front of it, his pants and boots instantly catching fire and quickly devouring his flesh like a hungry, untamed beast. Mari only watches in half-delight and half-grief, laughing through her tears as she prances back up to him and watches as his skin burns away and the muscles of his legs begin to disintegrate.

Reaching out a bloodied hand, Eric tries to kick away from the fire, but his legs are nothing more than bones now. “HEP ME! HEP ME! PWEASE!”

Almost by some stroke of mercy, she grabs his forearm and tugs him out of the direct conflagration, pulling him onto the heated, bloodied stones. The Storm wizard is balling like a child, completely overwhelmed by the pain, and its so overwhelming that he can’t even lose consciousness for he only is awoken again to the same agony.

Mari inspects her burnt trophy for a moment, smirking as she finally comes to term with the end of the nightmare--set on a fitting end.

“Do you have a heart?” she asks quietly, her face now expressionless as her fingers toy with the hilt of the katana. At Eric’s pained, confused face, she looms over him and stares at his chest intently. “I think I’ll be needing yours.”

“N-NO! NO!!!!”

Eric’s final scream of pure agony was much, much worse than any of the others he had uttered. If he had sounded like a dying animal before, he now sounded like an animal who was caught alive in a trap, then wrenched away mercilessly, having its paws torn clean off. It sounded like that same animal as it was held up, up, by its tail, high in the air, and then slit open, disemboweled, and skinned alive. It sounded like that animal as its still writhing, living body was tossed aside and left to die, its pelt carried away by the heartless hunter who didn't make one move to stop his dogs, who leapt upon the animal and tore it to pieces as soon as the cold ground touched its naked nerves and sent the worst pain imaginable flooding through its body.

He was like that of that nameless animal, and Mari would be the hunter that would skin him alive.

Mari, grit her teeth as she shoved the blade into the base of his neck and tore right through him all the way down to his scrotum to expose his innards shining wetly in the light of the inferno almost engulfing them. The Storm wizard’s eyes finally rolled back in his head, brain shutting down and unable to process anything more.

With a cruel sneer, the redhead reaches down into the open cavity to wrap her hands around the barely beating heart and tear it from his now lifeless body. She stares at the scarlet organ wordlessly...her face blank again as she considers it--the thing she had sought out in order to make things even.

Indeed, this had been her target all along: an eye for an eye...a heart to make up for the one that had been shattered.

Yes, this would do.

With a calm blink, Mari watches as the heart in her hand catches on fire like the body at her feet. Flames surrounded her now, but the fire witch remains unphased, simply interested in the organ in her cupped hand as it turns to ashes.

Ashes are swept away by the winds of the inferno, and Mari sighs as her hand is left empty. Stepping from the fire, she walks over toward the opposite side of the closing circle, staring in the direction of where she knew William’s body had been. There stands the greedy wall of fire.

As the aura around her finally fades--her vengeance fulfilled, silent, bloody tears run down the witch’s face. And she realizes...that she still isn’t satisfied.

Revenge had been sweet, and she didn’t regret what she did. She’d do it again, and again, and again gleefully.

Sitting down as the fire consumes her, burning away her clothing but sparing the child of fire, she realizes that there’s one problem to it all.

_It couldn’t bring William back..._

 

* * *

 

_List of Japanese Terms in Order of Appearance:_

_Hekkuhaundo--Heckhound_

_Resiu--Wraith_

_Shirudo--Shield_

_Sukeruton--Skeleton_

_Enmaku--Smokescreen_

_Soo desu ne--Is that so?_

_Sukebe--Phrase used to call someone a pervert or creep_

_Yosai--Fortify_

_Daijobudesuka?--Are you okay?_

_Okiro!--Wake up!_

_Oite ikanaide kudasai--Don’t leave, please_

_Kudasai--Please_

_Gisei--Sacrifice_

_Teishi shite kudasai--Please stop_

_Shi-ne--(You) Die_

 


End file.
